Hill Named Carbondale Head Football Coach

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Story Created:
Jul 18, 2013 at 10:13 PM CDT

Story Updated:
Jul 18, 2013 at 10:46 PM CDT

CARBONDALE -- With a unanimous vote, the Carbondale school board named former SIU quarterback Nick Hill the Terriers' next head football coach Thursday night. The board spent a little more than an hour in executive session before its regularly scheduled meeting.

The resignation of former head coach Dan Koester was on the agenda, along with most of his assistant coaches from last year's team. Koester stepped away earlier this month, citing personal and health reasons.

"It's a resignation in July, so with the season coming up I think you could certainly say it was unexpected," Carbondale high school superintendent Steve Murphy said. "But we're looking forward with Nick Hill."

Murphy gave no detail as to why Koester resigned, saying it was his own decision. Koester coached Carbondale to two playoff appearances in five years on the job, ending his tenure with a record of 20-27.

"If this (Koester's resignation) had happened in January, you could take some more time on it and evaluate a lot more candidates," Murphy added. "But we were on a tight time frame. Luckily we had a great candidate in Nick, so it made it a pretty easy choice."

Hill was slated to be the Terriers' offensive coordinator this year but was named interim coach after Koester resigned. The Du Quoin native takes over a program that hasn't had a winning season since 2004.

"I'm excited," Hill said. "I mean there's a lot of things that have been going on but we're just trying to get this team ready, get this staff put together and just keep these kids working hard."